WEYMOUTH - Bob Fitzgerald may keep busy editing and co-publishing New England Runner magazine, but he says he still finds the time to run 25 miles per week.

By A.J. Bauer

Bob Fitzgerald may keep busy editing and co-publishing New England Runner magazine, but he says he still finds the time to run 25 miles per week.

The 53-year-old Weymouth resident purchased the bi-monthly magazine in 1998 with his wife, co-publisher Michelle LeBrun. But despite its combination of his biggest passions - running and writing - Fitzgerald said he was a latecomer to sports journalism.

Fitzgerald began running around the time he began taking a few journalism classes as an English major at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. However, upon graduation, Fitzgerald said he was not interested in entering the competitive journalism field.

After trying his hand at a number of careers, including construction and sales, Fitzgerald started covering running races on a freelance basis. The job stuck and he found his way to New England Runner, where he worked for six years before purchasing the magazine.

Fitzgerald and LeBrun have overseen an upgrade in the magazine, which typically ranges in size from 80 to 96 pages, to use glossy paper and more color pages. They have grown the magazine's circulation from 9,000 to about 11,000, employing promotional techniques such as direct mail and an annual calendar.

Previously based in Cleveland Circle in Brighton - fittingly next to the 22.3 mile mark of the Boston Marathon - Fitzgerald and LeBrun recently moved the publication to an office in South Weymouth to reduce their commute.

What's the history of New England Runner?

It started in April 1983 as Boston Running News. John McGrath owned an events management company at the time that put on the Boston Milk Run (and other races). This was in the early, mid-'70s that he had this event management company. And the running boom hit kind of hit in 1972 when Frank Shorter won the Olympic gold medal and continued into the '80s. And what John found happening was this little pamphlet he was putting out basically to publicize his upcoming events that he threw editorial (copy) in, all of a sudden people were clamoring to read about running because everybody was getting into it. It became a lot easier to put out the magazine, and more profitable than to do the events, and so he started doing that full time.

Declining circulation is a serious concern for magazines and newspapers these days. Has your niche market helped alleviate those concerns?

It's helped us hold our own. You know, we haven't seen any steep drop, we haven't seen any steep gain. There are certain things we can do that will guarantee more subscribers like doing a direct mail. ... But we're grassroots-based so we have all sorts of relationships with race directors. We've started putting banners up on the marathon Web sites and we're getting some subscribers through that.

And we're a niche magazine that's been around 25 years, so we have a very loyal clientele that ranges from young people up through their 70s. And we're kind of blessed in that this area has more running clubs than any other area of the country. It's essentially where road running started in New England and New York. But it's a tough market, especially with the Internet. We have our own Web site so we're trying to marry that more to the magazine.

Where does the Internet fit into the future for your industry?

Well, it hits a lot of the areas that aren't going to make it into the magazine. It's different content, more topical content. If we were a daily newspaper this is the stuff we'd be hitting but we're even beyond a weekly newspaper, we're a bi-monthly newspaper. So things pop up all the time, there's no shortage of information out there. Our problem is there's two of us and we do the magazine, which consumes a lot of our time. ... There's all sorts of different things you can do and we're just starting to explore. I think the Internet, as much as it's cutting into mainstream media, could be a real boost for niche media.

What do runners look for in a running magazine?

You know, you can get a calendar on the Web, but this is a very inclusive calendar, and it's portable, you don't have to boot up to grab it. Also, race results are huge in his area and we know a lot of the runners, we know a lot of the races, we've been to them so we can always put something insightful about the course or what's going on. ... I think a lot of people are looking for something a little offbea.t ... We get a lot of magazines from around the country, and a lot of it is so black and white. You know, so and so ran and won, so and so came in second. We try to get beyond that, we try to personalize it.

Do you think running is more popular now that it has been in the past?

It's funny, the first running boom which was through the '70s and early '80s was pretty much sports-oriented. The people who got into it got into it to see what they could possibly produce out of it. Now, I would say from the late '80s on, it's been event-driven. It's a much more recreational approach.

So the good thing about that is it's allowed a lot more people who were formerly intimidated about getting out there to get out there. And I think overall that's a good thing, because you talk about obesity in children in this country. You know, kids learn by example and if their parents are out running and it's fun and they go to different events that are fun and there are kids activities, which most of them have these days, they're going to learn from that.

So do you find time for a run every day?

I ran four (miles) before I came in (to work). I'm like on my 10,000th comeback. This one's pretty serious though, I've managed to get a little consistency without getting injured. But I used to run 60 to 90 (miles) a week.

A.J. Bauer of The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Mass.) may be reached at ajbauer@ledger.com.

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